Always keep in mind that the
EUSSR is exporting much of their emissions to the Far
East. That, of course, increases emissions
greatly. [1]

“The existing target of a 20 per cent cut is
already due to cost £48 billion. The Commission
will argue that the lower target has become much easier
to meet because of the recession, which resulted in
the EU’s emissions falling more than 10 per cent
last year as thousands of factories closed or cut production.
Emissions last year were already 14 per cent below 1990
levels.”
—
“The plan also says that the higher target would
reduce air pollution from fossil fuels and improve the
health of millions of people, generating up to £8
billion a year in economic benefits from having a healthier
population.”

“Marfork Coal Co. has started work on the Bee
Tree Surface Mine, and is blasting within 1,000 feet
of the impoundment. The blasting threatens to decrease
the stability of the Brushy Fork dam, which sits above
a honeycomb of abandoned underground mines.”
—
“If the Brushy Fork impoundment breaks, a 38.49-foot
wall of water will arrive in Sylvester, a town 4.8 miles
downriver, within 36 minutes. By Massey Energy’s
own estimates, the disaster would kill 998 people.”
[Quoted from itsgettinghotinhere.org]

“Big rig oil spill on Highway 101 snarls traffic

“Southbound movement on Highway 101 will be a
problem for motorists driving through South County for
most of the day after a big rig overturned and spilled
thousands of gallons of oil on the roadway.”
—
“All lanes of traffic were closed immediately
after the wreck and traffic was diverted through city
streets.One lane on each side of the highway reopened
about 7:30 a.m. Officials believe that traffic will
be limited through a single lane on each side of the
highway for at least another 12 hours until the wreckage
is cleared and the oil is removed.” [Quoted from
montereyherald.com]

Ever heard of these incidents?

Meanwhile, traces of radioactivity
were found at onsite at Vermont nuclear power site. So
there are at least a thousand ‘news’ mentions
so far, despite zero danger and nuclear
power being the safest and cleanest mass energy system
known.

“How did the team from the Geophysical Institute
of the University of Alaska estimate that the contribution
of these glaciers to sea-level rise was 0.17 mm/year?
In 1995, and then again in 2001, the researchers used
an airborne laser to measure the surface elevation of
67 glaciers along longitudinal profiles. These elevations
were then compared with those mapped in the 1950s and
1960s. From this, the researchers inferred elevation
changes and then extrapolated this to other glaciers.
Their results, published in Science (3), pointed to
a major contribution to sea-level rise for the 1950-1995
period (0.14 mm/year sea-level rise), which then doubled
in the recent period (after 1995).”

Seven/fourteen photos, or even
six/twelve photos - theory is always over-ridden by evidence.

But even six photos, or one snow
storm is not ‘proof ’ of ‘global warming’,
or even AGW.

I spend a fair amount of time watching
the uninformed denialists making the standard, irrelevant
‘points’ as to why there ain’t no such
thing as global warming, or that it has nothing to do
with human activities, despite the well-established concensus
that it is happening and human activity is the main reason.
I also hear people of good will trying to argue with the
moonbats, but having limited data at their finger tips.

Thus, the ‘conversation’
goes back and forth like a Christmas pantomime. This will
continue until at least three conditions are maintaind
in the ‘debate’:

that known facts are given a higher
attention than theories (empiricism);

that numbers are given precedence
over adjectives. Far better a claim is made that our
best estimate is that the general climate temperature
has risen by 1°F since the beginning of the industrial
revolution, rather than “we’re all going
to boil by breakfast time”, or not according
to taste;

“With warmer temperatures also comes less snow.
Just ask the Mt. Baker Ski Area, which has had to close
for periods this winter, or the Vancouver 2010 Winter
Olympics organizers, who are being forced to truck in
snow for some events at Vancouver’s Cyprus Mountain.”

“Cool, dry air flows northwards to southwest
Australia, which keeps rainfall amounts down, while
warm, moist air flows into East Antarctica, providing
abundant snow. This pattern is consistent with previous
studies that tied the events to man-made factors that
may have played a role in drought.”

Saudi Arabia is entirely dependant on oil
exports. They have now joined the dedicated denialists like
Nigel Lawson in calling for an ‘independent’ enquiry.
They must know, as does the
filthy fossil fuel industry in general, that there is nothing
seriously wrong with the anthropogenic
global warming [AGW] data. But what they do know is that
their dirty, unaccountable industry is now under serious threat.
Hence, the dubious calls for independent enquiries as delaying
mechanisms and as further attempts to confuse the unsophisticated.

I was amused to see yet another attempt
to find a smoking gun, suggesting that temperature station data has been fiddled.

“One of the things that was revealed in the released
CRU emails is that the CRU basically uses the Global
Historical Climate Network (GHCN) dataset for its raw
data. So I looked at the GHCN dataset.” [Quoted
from wattsupwiththat.com]

As Mark Twain is supposed to
have said, “A lie travels half way round
the world while the truth is still putting on its shoes.”

It is hard to understand why people
with very little experience believe that they are going
to discover some amazing ‘reason’ why something
believed by the overwhelming majority of scientists practicing
in the field, has somehow been, unaccountably, overlooked.

“...the main temperature station moved to the
radar station at the newly built Darwin airport in January
1941. The temperature station had previously been at
the Darwin Post Office in the middle of the CBD, on
the cliff above the port. Thus, there is a likely factor
of removal of a slight urban heat island effect from
1941 onwards. However, the main factor appears to be
a change in screening. The new station located at Darwin
airport from January 1941 used a standard Stevenson
screen. However, the previous station at Darwin PO did
not have a Stevenson screen. Instead, the instrument
was mounted on a horizontal enclosure without a back
or sides. The postmaster had to move it during the day
so that the direct tropical sun didn't strike it! Obviously,
if he forgot or was too busy, the temperature readings
were a hell of a lot hotter than it really was! I am
sure that this factor accounts for almost the whole
of the observed sudden cooling in 1939-41. [Quoted from
john-daly.com]

And now for a list of corrections applied to old weather data station records:

“The data for each station in the USHCN are subjected
to several quality control tests, homogeneity tests,
and adjustment procedures. These steps are applied so
as to sequentially produce six different types of data
records, with each successive record type using the
preceding record type as input. Each data record type
is listed below with a description of the tests and/or
adjustments that go into making each of them.

Areal Edited (Raw)

A quality control procedure is performed that uses
trimmed means and standard deviations in comparison
with surrounding stations to identify suspects (>
3.5 standard deviations away from the mean) and outliers
(> 5.0 standard deviations). Until recently these
suspects and outliers were hand-verified with the original
records. However, with the development of more sophisticated
QC procedures at NCDC, this has been found to be unnecessary.

TOBS (Time of Observation)

The temperature data are adjusted for the time-of-observation
bias (Karl, et al. 1986), which occurs when observing
times are changed from midnight to some time earlier
in the day. The ending time of the 24-h climatological
day varies from station to station and/or over a period
of years at a given station. The time of observation
(TOB) introduces a non-climatic bias into the monthly
means. The TOB software is an empirical model used to
estimate the TOB biases associated with different observation
schedules and the routine computes the TOB with respect
to daily readings taken at midnight.

MMTS (Maximum/Minimum Temperature System)

Temperature data at stations that have the Maximum/Minimum
Temperature System (MMTS) are adjusted for the bias
introduced when the liquid-in-glass thermometers were
replaced with the MMTS (Quayle et al. 1991). The MMTS
program debiases the data obtained from stations with
MMTS sensors. The NWS has replaced a majority of the
liquid-in-glass thermometers in wooden Cotton-Region
shelters with thermistor based maximum-minimum temperature
systems (MMTS) housed in smaller plastic shelters. This
adjustment removes the MMTS bias for stations so equipped
with this type of sensor. The adjustment factors are
most appropriate for use when time series of states
or larger areas are required.

SHAP (Station History Adjustment Program)

The homogeneity adjustment scheme described in Karl
and Williams (1987) is performed using the station history
metadata file to account for time series discontinuities
due to random station moves and other station changes.
The debiased data from the MMTS adjustment are then
entered into the Station History Adjustment Program
or SHAP. The SHAP allows a climatological time series
of temperature and precipitation adjustment for station
inhomogeneities using station history information. The
adjusted data retain their original scale and are not
anomaly series. The methodology uses the concepts of
relative homogeneity and standard parametric (temperature)
and non parametric (precipitation) statistics to adjust
the data. In addition, this technique provides an estimate
of the confidence interval associated with each adjustment.
The SHAP program debiases the data with respect to changes
other than the MMTS conversion to produced the “adjusted
data”. Specific details on the procedures used
are given by Karl and Williams (1987).

FILNET (Fill Missing Original Data in the Network)

Estimates for missing data are provided using a procedure
similar to that used in SHAP. This adjustment uses the
debiased data from the SHAP and fills in missing original
data when needed (i.e. calculates estimated data) based
on a “network” of the best correlated nearby
stations. The FILNET program also completed the data
adjustment process for stations that moved too often
for SHAP to estimate the adjustments needed to debias
the data.

Urban (Urban Warming Adjustment)

The final adjustment is for an urban warming bias
which uses the regression approach outlined in Karl
et al. (1988). The result of this adjustment is the
“final” version of the data. [Quoted from
cdiac.ornl.gov]

The amazing hoohaa generated
by the ‘leak’ of UEA e-mails has, in fact,
not yet turned up even a shadow of error, let alone fraud,
despite all the usual suspects pouncing on the ‘leak’ like
a pack of hyenas.

I am following this frenzy with bemusement,
amusement and some degree of sadness that the combination
of venality among those who should know better, and the
gullible ignorance of the general population. But it is a useful situation
for watching the deniers closely in action.

“Scientists already know that carbon dioxide
acts like a fertilizer, stimulating plant growth, while
ozone harms plants. But they didn't know what would
happen with both gases in a realistic, long-term study.

“ "Our results have been remarkably consistent,"
says Kruger. "They show that high carbon dioxide
increases the growth of young aspen and birch, high
ozone decreases their growth, and the gas's effects
on growth cancel each other out when both are elevated."
” [Quoted from earthobservatory.nasa.gov]

“ "If our hypothesis that tropical tree
growth rates are decreasing in response to higher temperatures
is correct, this creates the danger of positive feedbacks:
higher temperatures cause reduced tree growth which
in turn results in slower rates of carbon uptake and
more deforestation/land conversion, which then results
in accelerated increases of atmospheric CO2 and global
warming, causing further reductions in growth and so
on and so on," said Feeley.” [Quoted from
mongabay.com]

“The changes in precipitation patterns and rainfall
were one of the more significant elements of the fourth
IPCC report, she said. Scientists, policy makers and
the public are looking at more than just temperature
changes when it comes to global warming. Instead, they
are examining the Earth as an entire system and studying
the consequences of what happens when the planet warms.”
[Quoted from cnet.com]